The Twelve Days before Christmas
by N-I-N-T
Summary: Claire has an idea to have a large celebration with her friends and family during Christmas for the first time in several years. Unknown to her, the twelve days before Christmas turn out to be more more like the "Twelve Pains of Christmas" because of her friends and family. A continuation of Silver Bells. JakeXSherry BillyXRebecca


This is kind of a continuation from "Silver Bells".

**The Twelve Days of Christmas: Chapter 1, Buying a Christmas Tree**

Usually, this time of year she was snuggled up in her warm bed with a warm cup of hot cocoa.

Usually, she would read a book in front of her cozy fireplace, listening to the distant sound of wind outside of her windows.

Usually, she would spend the holiday getting ahead in her profession.

Usually, this time of year was to be avoided.

Unfortunately for these normal holiday traditions, this year, Claire Redfield did what she had never thought of doing before; a Christmas gathering of her friends and family. A large feast to be held on Christmas day, gifts that needed to be wrapped, presents to be bought; and most importantly, decorations in the house that lead to one gorgeous tree. They would string cranberries and popcorn to hang on as garland, and they would take turns telling stories while roasting chestnuts over the open fire. Claire and her friends would laugh joyfully at Christmas movies, and they would sing Christmas Carols for the elderly. Her plans were enthusiastic, her mind set for the goal; invitations to the festive fun were already sent, and all that awaited was the head count.

Sure, her favor had been sent out two days before December the thirteenth, but with twelve days before Christmas, she was sure that she could manage, and would be expecting a lot of company.

With these thoughts in her head as she approached the dreaded, snow-covered lot, she remembered the moment when the adventure started, and smirked inwardly.

_"Hey Chris. How's it going?" She asked while cupping her phone with her shoulder._

_ "Pretty good. I was just calling to check up on you. What are your plans for Christmas this year?" _

_ She hummed to herself, while scrubbing her dishes. "I'm not sure, in all honesty. I haven't thought about it." _

_ Chris chuckles at his little sister, "Why don't you spend Christmas with Jill and me?" he pauses, "I mean, if you and..."_

_ "I will think about it." Claire replies quickly, dropping a glass in the sink, and interrupting her brother._

_ They talked for a long while, a normal sibling conversation, before a long, and hidden thought in Claire's mind stirred. She finally pipes in. "Why don't we all spend Christmas here, instead?"_

_ "W-what?" he stammers, caught off guard. By this time, Claire had already finished her dishes, and was sitting at her dinner table, flipping through a Christmas Magazine, and having a cup of coffee._

_ "Yeah, I mean, I am the only one that lives in the house. Plus, you two live in a small studio apartment, that's not big enough for a good Christmas." She pauses, "Besides, we haven't had a huge Christmas celebration in… well, it's been almost twenty years, Chris." She glances to her calendar on the wall. "And I can get two weeks off of work this time of year, seeing as I rarely take time off. I know you and Jill can, too." Claire sipped on her coffee as she spoke over the phone to her brother, and he struggled to find words._

_ "Well, yeah… I guess we could do that," He clears his throat, and Claire makes a mental note that he was verifying the information with Jill before continuing. "It's going to be just __us__ right?" he asks tiredly, suspecting mischievous behavior from his younger sibling._

_ "Oh yeah, it will be just __us__." _

That was three days ago, and needless to say, it was "just them", because Chris was the one who didn't clarify who "us" was. Therefore, Claire invited all of their friends and family on a whim.

Of course, after the initial invitation to Chris and Jill, Rebecca was invited. Obviously, Billy would be present as well. Second, she invited Sherry. Jake might also attend, but Claire wasn't betting her money on it. Third was Barry and his family, even though she wasn't very familiar with Barry herself, she was close to his daughter Moira. Plus, they were good friends with Chris and Jill. And finally, the Bell of everyone's ball, Leon Kennedy.

All of these people were the original survivors of the Raccoon City incident, all of them were good friends, and nearly family. Chris and Jill couldn't be mad at her for inviting _family_.

Recalling the events, Claire snickers to herself, and pulls up her scarf above her nose and exhales into it for warmth. As she approaches the tree lot, she is feeling victorious before her adversaries; already everyone had replied as said that they would be interested in coming, and should be arriving at Claire's house within the day or so.

She gushes at the thought of baking sugar cookies, and setting up decorations with her brother. Caught up in her own thoughts and with her heart full of so much excitement for Christmas, she nearly missed the salesman trying to talk with her.

"Ma'am?" He asks again, trying to get the Auburn haired female's attention. He was waving a hand near her face, trying to snap her out of her daze.

She's reeled back into reality by his boyish voice, and then she snaps her head at the man while feeling silly she missed his advance.

"Yes?" she smiles warmly, and the young man blushes slightly.

"I asked how are you doing, and if you need any help finding a tree." The boy stood about six foot tall, and was very lean. His hair was a light red. His face was pale, and his eyes dark green. Claire noticed that he was very charming for his age, but very young.

"I'm afraid that we haven't got much to choose from anymore…" He starts but Claire is overly chipper and pats him on the shoulder and smiles.

"That's okay, just show me what you have left." It was easy to see that the boy was a good five to six years younger than the Redfield, but he was still awe-struck by her beauty. Although she was in her thirties, age did not take its toll on her and her small wrinkles were nearly completely hidden by the early moon light. Her cheeks were rosy due to the cold weather, and her smile made her appear not a day over twenty. He smiled joyfully at the chance to help such a beautiful woman, and pointed towards some large trees in the corner.

"These are the best ones we have. They're large… but not very full." He tells her while rubbing his head. Claire's joy remained afloat and she asked to see another one.

As the night progressed, her joy seemed to dwindle, until nearly disappearing. She was secretly hoping that the young man was exaggerating when he said there wasn't a lot to choose from. Every tree she had seen that was large and full, had a huge chunk missing from one side, or was completely uneven. To say the least, the excitement for Christmas tree shopping was nearly gone, and now she was just getting frustrated. Her eyebrows knit together tightly, as she tapped her fingers on her arm. And, to make the bad trees even worse, the prices weren't knocked down at all to compensate for their poor condition. She was frowning, and skeptical at the boy's persuasive attitude to buying a skimpy tree for the same price as a great tree, and quickly, she was becoming sour.

"This Christmas tree lot is the only one in fifty miles." Her thoughts escaped her brain, but she covered her mouth quickly. "Sorry, but do you have anything else? Or a deal… or something?"

The boy seemed dejected. "..No, I'm sorry we don't have anything better to offer you."

He slumps a bit, gazing around the lot. It really was a poor selection. There weren't a lot of people, and most of the trees were dying or skimpy. Claire begins shifting on her feet and shrugging her shoulder as if to imply that she was ready to leave. After some thought and a few awkward glances toward Claire, he radiates. "I'll tell you what. Even though I'm not supposed to, I'll give you half-off any tree you'd like; and, we'll even load it into your truck for ya'."

Claire, who had been losing faith, brightens up a bit at this statement, and then smiles to the man.

She gratefully replies, "Thank you."

"So, uh, what's your name?" He asks while Claire leads him to a tree. There weren't a lot of options, but Claire had an idea about one of the larger ones she saw first. As they approach the tree, a cold wind blows in from the east, sending specks of snow up into the air. When Claire turned around to look at the slim boy, she looks majestic.

"I'm Claire Redfield."

"Claire is a pretty name," he compliments her, "I'm Scott, we don't usually get gorgeous people like you here; it's very refreshing."

It was hard to tell if her face was red because of the cold, or because she was blushing; nonetheless, she smiles once again, and pulls her scarf up around her nose.

"Thank you, Scott." Even though she enjoyed the admiration, she was still focused on her goal. They arrived at the Christmas tree of her choice, a large nine foot tree with the needles missing on one side.

She touches the frail limbs of the one dead side, and then compares it with the living side. "I'll take this one."

The boy seemed a bit dumbstruck by her choice, as there were prettier ones that were a bit smaller. "Are you sure…? There are smaller—"

"No, this is the one! We'll just put the dead side in the corner of the room."

"Well, okay," he speaks while pulling a sheet from his back pocket, and writing a receipt for the pretty auburn haired lady. "So, are you busy tonight..? You know, after the Christmas tree."

Claire turns around, and opens her mouth, but, before she could speak, an arm wraps around her shoulders and she gets pulled into a lopsided hug.

"It's the perfect tree." He speaks, and his raspy voice was all too familiar to Claire. Her fists clench unnervingly, and she tucks her lips in. Her head moves very slowly toward the man, as if the snow had trickled down to her bones.

His sandy blonde hair hung down in front of his left eye, and his pale skin was even whiter in the snowfall. His grey eyes pierced through the night air, gazing forward at the young Christmas tree salesman.

"Leon." Claire whispers, clearly agitated.

The red-haired boy slumps slightly, and then rips the receipt out and hands it to Claire.

"I'll go and get the movers." With that, he scampered away into the distance of the park.

At first, silence envelopes the couple, neither one moves from their spot resting in the snow. Frozen beside one another with Leon's arm still wrapped around her.

It was Claire who spoke first.

"What was that all about?" She asks, tilting her head to the government agent while peeling his fingers from her arm. She slips out from his grasp, and moves closer to the dead side of the tree, almost hiding from him.

"You did invite me," He chuckles softly, which makes Claire nearly pout.

"I did," Her eyes close matter-of-factly, "but I thought you would be too busy to come."

"And miss a gathering of this size?" He rebuts her, moving closer to her step by step, and her moving step by step away.

Claire gazes into the distance when she speaks, looking longingly at the gentle snow fall, and the clouds in the sky. "I meant, why are you here? Like, at this Christmas tree lot."

"Chris said that you would be here, and I thought that you might need help." Leon looks the tree up and down and frowns. "This one looks a little dead though?"

Claire glares at him, preparing a sarcastic reply to her ex-best-friend/boyfriend, but stops mid-sentence, becoming sidetracked.

"Chris is here?" She asks the government agent, swiftly elated.

"Yeah. He showed up about thirty minutes after I did. Luckily, he had an extra house key for us to get inside." Leon smiles awkwardly, "I'm glad to see you clean the place regularly now."

Claire simmers, and playfully pushes is arm, "I happen to be a very clean person, Mr. Kennedy." They had already circled the tree once trying to avoid one another when they were interrupted by the returning of Scott and two of his co-workers.

"We can load up that tree now, if you want to pull your truck around."

Claire smiles victorious, and slaps Leon on the back as she leaves.

"Make sure you give the heavy end to him." She winks at Scott at she leaves to pull her truck around. Leon throws up his arms at her as she leaves and scoffs.

Claire hesitates when she reaches her truck, and she exhales very deeply, painfully. She hadn't seen Leon in the last seven or eight months, he was so busy with work that. She hits her truck on accident, lost in her own thoughts. She holds her fist, and musters a very silent, but painful "owe" before unlocking and climbing into her truck.

When she backs it into the loading zone, Leon and Scott and the group of movers quickly haul it into the bed, and then strap it down tight. Claire pops out of the truck right as they're finishing, but leaves the truck running.

"I owe you sixty dollars then." She says while pulling out the money in her wallet. Scott smiles warmly to her as he takes the money.

"Thank you, and have a Merry Christmas."

"Thank you! And you too." She replies as the boy begins to leave very slowly, waiting a couple of sad minutes before finally peeling his eyes off of a Claire that wasn't even staring his direction; her gaze was fixated on the large man leaning on the driver's side of the truck.

"That tree has a lot of sap." He speaks smoothly, and then pushes off of the truck to approach Claire.

"Can I have a ride back to your place?" his voice is low, and he leans down to look into her eyes.

Her brows furrow, "Where is your vehicle?"

"Well… I don't have one, I took a taxi here."

"What would you have done if I wasn't here anymore?" She shoots back, and rips open her truck door. "Take a taxi back." She grumbles while jumping in.

"C'mon Claire, please?" he playfully begs her with his manly charm and leans into her truck window.

She simmers for a bit, and then presses the unlock button on her door, finally muttering a very quiet, "Fine."

Leon exhales in relief, and then circles around the truck, and pops into the passenger seat. She's already shifting gears as he begins to buckle up. A lot of their hostility was playfulness between fifteen years of friendship, but there was also…well, his eyes drift to the front of the truck, and gives a soft smile. He hadn't seen Claire in a very long time, but it was very relieving, even if she was still mad at him. Her truck was warm from the heat, and she had sugar cookie air fresheners.

"Seems like you went from being a hermit on Christmas to being Mary."

Claire side glanced at Leon, and then pouted, pursuing her lips forward as she turned onto the highway from the Christmas tree lot.

"I just want to celebrate with my friends and family. So everyone has a place to go." She is looking off to the distance, passing some cars while she is speaking. With a smile, Leon sighs and then rests his elbow on the arm rest on the door, and leans on his hand.

They remain in silence for the majority of the journey, enveloped in their own thoughts. Claire had turned the radio on about five minutes into the drive, and was listening to classic Christmas music that was playing on the radio. She was humming as she drove onto the side road that would lead to her house. Everything seemed to be going well, until a loud crash came from the back of the truck. The trucks back lifted, and the sudden entanglement caused the Redfield to jerk the steering wheel, causing the truck to run off the road and up onto the sidewalk.

Leon clung to the dash board and door for dear life, as Claire stomped on the breaks and forced the vehicle to an abrupt and whiplash worthy stop. They both groaned simultaneously, Leon unbuckled his seat belt, while Claire threw the truck into park. They looked at one another.

"Are you okay?" She asks while unbuckling her belt.

"Just feeling a little bit of Déjà vu." He rubs his head gently and Claire rubs his shoulder. However, upon scanning the rear-view mirror, she dropped her head onto the steering wheel.

"What happened?" Leon finally questions, while stepping out of the truck to look backwards; he had assumed that they ran over something, but, when he steps outside, he couldn't help but chuckle and look in at the defeated Claire.

"The first pain of Christmas: buying a Christmas tree?"

She looked over at him, peering through slanted eyes. "Help me go get it." She barks, and then vaults out of her truck, slamming the door behind her. She leaves the engine running and follows Leon onto the sidewalk, and both of them make their way in the brisk weather toward the fallen tree.

"What is the luck of that happening?" She grumbles.

Leon kept a cool head, and stuffs his hands in his pockets. "They didn't tie it down properly."

Just as they approached the tree, the loud horn of a semi roared from the distance. Claire's ears perked at this, and she threw up her arms and clearly out of her mind, jolted toward the edge of the sidewalk and waved her arms at the truck, trying to get it to stop. Sensing the impending danger, and the risk of Claire being injured from flying fragments, Leon jolts toward Claire and pulls her away from the road by her waist.

"It's not worth it Claire!" He yells; but it was too late, Claire was watching the moment unravel before her eyes. The large sixteen wheeler truck zoomed by at an unnecessary speed, destroying her half dead tree. Pine needles and bark exploded, decorating the snow. While the trucker didn't bat an eyelash, and did not even bother to pull over. The world was in slow motion until she hit the soft but cold snow with a large thump. Beside her, Leon fell a moment later. He quickly pushes himself up onto her forearms to check on Claire, but she had already sat up to stare at the wreckage.

Her mouth hung a gap, and her eyes were wide open; flabbergasted that such an event could occur, and so quickly.

Suspecting that Claire might be disheartened, Leon grips her shoulder. "It's okay, Claire, we can get another one."

He hung his head in silence, but instantaneously, Claire jumps up, and starts dusting her legs off.

"Damn right we will." She pauses, offers her hand to help Leon up and then walks quickly toward her truck. "I knew I should have just bought a plastic tree from the store in the first place."

**Author's Note: **So… they're a bit OOC? I think it's really hard to capture their personalities in this kind of situation. I mean, it's a Christmas fic in what is supposed to be a horror/survival genre. I tried to keep it light hearted. But on that note, they can't be serious all the time, right? I mean, I was thinking that what happens outside of that 48 hour gaming period that we see. Even the greatest agents and soldiers have moments of "normalness", I guess. I mean, who would act like you're going to die every day of the year when your life isn't in any immediate danger? I mean, imagine that for a moment. Take Chris for instant, in the morning buttering toast for breakfast in his "I must survive this nightmare" persona.

…Just think about it.

Yeah… so that's why I think it's okay for them to be a little bit OOC.

I'm going to try to get this finished before Christmas, so the following chapters won't be as long or tedious to read.

I tried to use the original "Twelve days of Christmas" to write this, but the story would have been really religious, I think; so, I'm using the parody version instead titled "The Twelve Pains of Christmas"

Hope you enjoyed


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